I, too, have mostly removed myself from social media, finding that it really has a negative impact on both how I see myself and how I see the world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram... my life has improved dramatically since I have distanced myself from all of them.
What I find most amusing is that even though I'm a liberal, and mostly (though not entirely) caught in a liberal bubble on social media, I still find myself irritated, saddened, and frustrated by the rancor of my friends online. Some folks who are genuinely great people turn into real monsters on the internet, and they don't (in this case) even have the benefit of anonymity. I find that both fascinating and horrifying.
One interesting problem that came from this, though, is that I participate in a lot of hobby (mostly costuming and maker) groups. Now that online forums have gone the way of the dinosaur, there are few places outside of Facebook to share ideas, advice, and solicit help. This is a particular shame for two reasons:
1) It forces people to participate in a negative environment. Even heavily moderated groups still have you surrounded by other content that's shared by an algorithm that is quite problematic.
2) Facebook is a terrible format for this. Searching is almost nonexistent, and it's really hard to efficiently and effectively get or share help.
I have created a Facebook account that I only use for groups, and that helps with problem 1 to some extent, but I still really mourn the loss of dedicated forums on the internet.
>See this post in my email
>Footnotes?!
>Thus begins Eddy's transformation into the next DFW
I, too, have mostly removed myself from social media, finding that it really has a negative impact on both how I see myself and how I see the world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram... my life has improved dramatically since I have distanced myself from all of them.
What I find most amusing is that even though I'm a liberal, and mostly (though not entirely) caught in a liberal bubble on social media, I still find myself irritated, saddened, and frustrated by the rancor of my friends online. Some folks who are genuinely great people turn into real monsters on the internet, and they don't (in this case) even have the benefit of anonymity. I find that both fascinating and horrifying.
One interesting problem that came from this, though, is that I participate in a lot of hobby (mostly costuming and maker) groups. Now that online forums have gone the way of the dinosaur, there are few places outside of Facebook to share ideas, advice, and solicit help. This is a particular shame for two reasons:
1) It forces people to participate in a negative environment. Even heavily moderated groups still have you surrounded by other content that's shared by an algorithm that is quite problematic.
2) Facebook is a terrible format for this. Searching is almost nonexistent, and it's really hard to efficiently and effectively get or share help.
I have created a Facebook account that I only use for groups, and that helps with problem 1 to some extent, but I still really mourn the loss of dedicated forums on the internet.